Chapter 208

Given the Clear Wind Temple's rapid expansion, the presence of internal spies was inevitable. Lin Hui understood this. After all, they had opened their doors to the public; slipping in undetected was trivially easy.

Now, the process of bestowing seals would serve as the perfect screening mechanism to clean house.

Before long, Wang Hongshi tallied the numbers. With only a few core members currently absent from the temple, Lin Hui didn't bother being selective. He decided to have all official disciples currently present come over one by one for the Blood Seal appraisal.

Just as the temple began notifying the disciples, a report from Chen Sui's vanguard team brought Lin Hui up short.

"Someone actually dared to attack our sect's team?" He found it hard to believe, but his expression quickly turned solemn.

Given the Clear Wind Temple's current public backing, factional ties, and overall strength, anyone bold enough to attack them was no minor faction.

"This battle report was written personally by Senior Brother Chen. Please take a look." The messenger disciple offered the letter with both hands.

Lin Hui took it and opened it.

"So it's our old friends from the Carefree Pavilion. And the Su family, along with the main Liu family." After a brief analysis, Lin Hui concluded that this was an operation targeting his older brother, Liu Wujun.

"Temple Master, they've already made their stance clear. Isn't proceeding with our previous arrangements a bit too conservative? Shouldn't we immediately notify the Rain Palace?" Wang Hongshi, as always, prioritized stability.

"Naturally, we should inform my older brother first, but there's no rush. Eldest Sister has probably already written to him," Lin Hui replied, setting the letter down. "Besides, with Xia Si over there, it won't be a major issue."

"Senior Sister Xia Si is indeed very reliable," Wang Hongshi nodded. "What do you intend to do, Temple Master?"

"Since the Carefree Pavilion has made their move..." Lin Hui pondered for a moment. "If this operation fails, they won't be able to mobilize stronger experts. Doing so would escalate matters into a full-scale war between two major Rain Palace factions, which the Palace Master would never allow. Therefore, Xia Si is more than enough to handle any overt threat on that front."

Now that the maze base was on the agenda and showing promise, Lin Hui felt somewhat reluctant to continue managing the Clear Wind Temple in the Outer City.

This incident presented the perfect opportunity.

"Let Xia Si and Chen Sui handle external matters. We'll stick to our own tasks."

Lin Hui had considered heading directly into the Inner City to wipe out the Carefree Pavilion, but ultimately abandoned the idea. For one, the Carefree Pavilion was different from the Clear River Sect—it was a legitimate, major faction of the New Martial Alliance. The relationships and networks of its experts were complex and deeply intertwined, implicating quite a few members of the Three Great Powers.

Some core members of the Three Great Powers even held key positions within the Carefree Pavilion.

A surprise attack might guarantee a swift, one-strike kill against most of his enemies, but the Carefree Pavilion was merely a public front. The Su family and the main Liu family, truly backing them, would be far harder to deal with.

Both powerful clans possessed top-tier High Divine Officers and might even be hiding Palace Master-level old monsters. Such entities, coupled with powerful Relics, formidable Evil Weapons, and Insect Canons...

...would make their combined strength extremely dangerous.

Therefore, Lin Hui chose to bide his time. This was not his battlefield; it was his older brother's.

Just as he was waiting for the core disciples to gather, a messenger arrived from the Rain Palace in the Inner City.

His older brother, Liu Wujun, had urgently deployed personnel against the Carefree Pavilion. The two sides clashed, but following mediation by the Palace Master's faction, a temporary truce was called.

The incident had, however, thrown Liu Wujun off during his participation in the Inter-City Exchange Meeting. He made a misstep and lost two rounds, resulting in significant losses for his master.

In his letter, Liu Wujun emphasized that as long as they remained at the Clear Wind Temple, they would be perfectly safe. The temple had already gained a measure of recognition in the Inner City and had been placed on the Inspectorate Division's cooperation and exchange list. Thanks to that connection, several Moon Tower Truebloods had already taken notice of it.

In essence, the Clear Wind Temple had become a semi-official, peripheral cooperative organization.

Lin Hui understood instantly. He was riding the coattails of Director Hong Ling from the Inspectorate Division. Her mother was an elder of the Extreme Desire Heaven—a rank above both the Su and Liu families—and so neither clan dared lay a finger on the temple.

He hadn't expected that a chain of coincidences would end with Hong Ling as his unwitting shield.

"Temple Master, what are our next steps?" Wang Hongshi asked, still waiting.

"Handle the elders who fled during the battle according to the rules for sect betrayal. That includes revoking their family benefits. Deal with it all at once," Lin Hui instructed.

"And their disciples?"

"Punish them together."

"Understood."

"As for the disciples who died in battle or were severely injured, follow the compensation rules to the letter. We'll address the rest once the temple's internal matters are settled."

"Yes!"

…

Before long, the core disciples still in the temple and able to gather quickly filed into the courtyard.

The number of core disciples of the Clear Wind Temple had since grown to thirty. Every one of them enjoyed free Body Tempering resources, martial arts instruction, family protection, benefit distributions, and other privileges.

In exchange, per their contracts, they were required to dedicate their time and energy to the Clear Wind Temple, completing a set quota of tasks within each assigned cycle.

"Except for Chen Sui and those out on missions, everyone who could make it is here."

Exactly twenty had entered. Among them were Huang Shan, Qiu Yiren, Little Hu, and other original Clear Wind Temple disciples. The later additions were present as well, including the Shadowhound Clan princess Li Yuanyuan, Xue Yanxiu, and other recently recruited talents.

Finally, there was Mingxia, who had come purely to watch.

Nobody could stop her. Upon hearing the commotion, she assumed Lin Hui was about to teach new martial arts and hurried over to see for herself.

"Greetings, Temple Master," the twenty saluted in unison.

"Very good." Lin Hui's gaze swept the courtyard. "I gathered everyone here today for a matter of considerable importance. Because our dispatched team was ambushed, we have tentatively determined that an internal spy has been feeding the enemy detailed intelligence about the temple. I will be conducting an internal screening today."

Most of those present stiffened slightly at the words. Those like Xue Yanxiu felt their hearts skip a beat.

Xue Yanxiu, in particular, recalled the last time he and Li Yuanyuan had been pulled aside for questioning regarding their talent. Lin Hui had told them to wait and that he would only pass on further martial arts instruction once he found a reliable method to verify their backgrounds.

He had assumed that after all this time, Lin Hui might have let it slip. He hadn't expected to be summoned for an internal screening today.

Lin Hui's perception was formidable now. Reading their reactions, he gained a quiet understanding of the room.

"The specific method is not something I can disclose, but I can guarantee that I will determine everyone's true allegiance with absolute certainty. I will not wrong a single person."

"So—who wants to go first?" Lin Hui asked, looking out over the twenty.

The moment the words left his mouth, Wang Hongshi was the first to step forward.

"I'll go first, Temple Master."

As a core disciple, he naturally fell within the scope of the screening.

"You may. Stand in front of me, close your eyes, and wait," Lin Hui instructed.

"Yes." Wang Hongshi trusted Lin Hui without reservation. He walked forward, halted at a meter's distance, closed his eyes, and stood perfectly still.

Lin Hui sat cross-legged on a futon, his gaze fixed on Wang Hongshi. The Blood Seal on the back of his hand briefly materialized, then vanished.

[Wang Hongshi: Human, 28 years old, Clear Wind Temple head supervisor, Internal Force martial artist, cultivating the perfected version of the Clear Wind Sword Technique, cultivating secret arts.]

Following this was a list of cultivated martial arts. Besides the Clear Wind Sword Technique and the Black Dragon Gate's Black Dragon Claw, this man had apparently taken up a whole string of Hard-Body Disciplines. None of them, however, had been brought anywhere close to mastery. They were all half-baked.

Moreover, the Blood Seal indicated that his drug toxicity and drug resistance had both maxed out. Clearly, Wang Hongshi had been secretly consuming massive doses of medicine, trying to walk in his Temple Master's footsteps.

Lin Hui was left speechless. He knew he had set a poor example, so he couldn't exactly reprimand him for it.

Finally, he looked at the Evolvable Branches entry.

Sure enough, it was 0.

There was also an additional warning.

[Warning: The higher the intelligence of the lifeform, the greater the weight of distracting thoughts, increasing the variables and making evolutionary conditions harsher. Moreover, after evolution, the subject's thinking will be reshaped by the mark, rendering them completely loyal to the host of the Blood Seal. They may lose some growth potential as a result. Please decide carefully.]

"...Temple Master, is there... is there a problem?" Seeing Lin Hui staring at him without blinking, expression grave, Wang Hongshi's heart began to pound.

Temple Master Lin Hui had always been an enigma—rarely showing emotion, never flinching in the face of crisis. For such an expression to surface from a mere inspection...

"You have accumulated too much drug toxicity in your body. You are not to take any more medicinal pills, or it will begin to erode your lifespan," Lin Hui replied.

"This... this disciple understands." Wang Hongshi's face went red. He had merely observed the Temple Master growing stronger the more medicine he consumed, and decided to try it himself. Who would have thought...

"Also, rein in your dalliances with women," Lin Hui added through a voice projection.

Among the information the Blood Seal had surfaced, there was even an assessment of Wang Hongshi's reproductive health. His excessive indulgences had taken a severe toll, and his reproductive function had plummeted sharply. Coupled with his reckless pill-taking and cultivation habits, he had nearly rendered himself entirely sterile.

"Yes!" Wang Hongshi startled and immediately lowered his head. He hadn't expected Lin Hui to have somehow discovered he'd been using his position to carry on outside the temple.

As head supervisor of the Clear Wind Temple, his standing and authority in the Outer City were far greater than most could imagine.

He simply hadn't been able to resist the temptation.

"Alright, you're cleared. Stand to the side. You'll be responsible for recording the roster—note down everyone who passes," Lin Hui ordered.

He intended to formally bestow seals this time, beginning with one person. He couldn't administer them all at once; it had to be done in layers, one step at a time.

There was a remarkable quality to the seal-bestowal process: if the recipient did not consider themselves a disciple of the sect in their heart of hearts, the seal would simply refuse to take, regardless of external effort.

This made it a foolproof method for rooting out spies.

"Yes." Releasing a long, quiet breath of relief, Wang Hongshi moved to the side, called for a disciple to bring brush and paper, and prepared to record the names.

What he did not know was that, starting today, the Clear Wind Temple would enter a new era—one defined by a profound and sweeping transformation.

The bestowal of the three seals, coupled with the Master Bestowal Seal—the Clear Source Law Seal—would drastically enhance the Clear Wind Temple's overall strength as a faction.

As for what heights prodigies like Xia Si might reach with all four seals behind them, even Lin Hui couldn't say.

…

While the screening was underway at the temple, Xia Si's team—dispatched to deal with the Hongfei Sect—finally arrived at their destination: Huangjia Town.

This was the very same location where Qiu Yiren had previously clashed with the enemy.

There, the Hongfei Sect had already positioned a substantial number of experts along the main road outside town, having long since settled in to wait. The fleeing Fu Chunxing was among them. And beside him stood a mysterious figure encased head to toe in silver armor—a walking iron can of a man.